In recent years, there is a global trend towards building a low-carbon society for preventing global warming, as part of global environmental protection. Also in Japan, projects to increase the number of fuel cell automobiles and to develop a hydrogen supply infrastructure are carried out by the government and the private sector. Not only fuel cell automobiles, but also trains, motorcycles, and forklift trucks that use fuel cells, and automobiles and other vehicles that directly use hydrogen as a fuel (hereinafter, referred to as “hydrogen vehicles”) are attracting attention.
Therefore, as a hydrogen supply infrastructure, building of hydrogen stations is planned and promoted at a rapid pace.
Regarding fuel hydrogen gas that is supplied to a hydrogen vehicle at a hydrogen station or the like, if the hydrogen gas includes impurities, such as carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulfide, deterioration of the performance of a catalyst of a fuel cell occurs. Therefore, there are regulations on maximum permissible concentrations of various impurities.
Accordingly, it is necessary to identify and quantify a plurality of impurities included in fuel hydrogen gas that is supplied to a hydrogen vehicle at a hydrogen station or the like and to check that the concentrations of various impurities in the hydrogen gas are less than or equal to the maximum permissible concentrations. Moreover, it is necessary to periodically perform more precise analysis of the impurities.
However, because hydrogen stations have been built recently at a rapid pace, an apparatus or a method suitable for sampling hydrogen gas supplied at a hydrogen station is not known.
Examples of a sampling apparatus or a sampling method known to date include a gas sampling vessel including a safety valve device (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2008-39440), a high-purity-gas sampler (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-171362), and a rapid gas sampler (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 7-294395).
In the existing technologies described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2008-39440, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-171362 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 7-294395, it is not disclosed that high-pressure hydrogen gas having a pressure of 70 MPa, which is supplied at a hydrogen station, can be safely sampled.